Little Women

"Little Women," Louisa May Alcott's work, which brought her much fame in her time, is a biographical account of her family. In the book, her father Amos Bronson is Mr. March and her mother Abigail May is Marmee, while her older sister Anna is Meg and younger sisters Lizzie and May are Beth and Amy, respectively. And Louisa May is the lead character, Josephine or Jo March, the second daughter. The novel, published in 1868-1869, made Alcott a major author of her era.

The March family is poor all throughout, and the women are always doing routine housework, which bores and frustrates them. Mr. March serves as a Union chaplain in the Civil War, which then rages, and he writes his family to inspire them to be more tolerant of their poverty and hardships. The girls wake up on Christmas morning to find copies of books under their pillows, probably "Pilgrim's Progress" as gifts for them from their father. True to their shaping as charitable Christians, they donate their breakfast to another poor family, the Hummels. But Meg, the eldest, has wealthy friend, Sally Gardiner, who invites her and Jo to Sally's New Year's party. Jo meets Laurie at that party and when Meg injures her ankle, Laurie takes the sisters home. Once home, Meg and Jo confront the grilling home chores that frustrate them.

The story caters most to Jo – Alcott's impersonation – who is tomboyish, self-expressive, has a temper, hates romance and is obsessed with family unity and welfare. She wants to be a writer and she becomes one, in the book as well as in real life. She rejects Laurie's offer of marriage, although everyone expects they would end up with each other. In the latter part, she instead marries Professor Bhaer when she gives up writing, and this can be interpreted as either a triumph for her domestic values or a professional loss to and in her, who consistently displays an independent spirit in the novel. The sharp contradiction in Jo's choices is the very contradiction in Alcott's values between domesticity and personal rebellion, anger, mental strength and independence she exuded in real life, and something which her father deplored deeply.

The sisters' interactions demonstrate the varying levels of maturity and vigor in young girls of their time. Alcott faithfully represents these in the different scenes of the novel. Amy's teacher catches her trading limes in school and punishes her. Marmee reacts by withdrawing Amy from school. When Jo refuses to bring Amy along to the theater, Amy hits back by burning Jo's manuscripts. In further retaliation, Jo almost lets Amy drown while ice-skating.

A telegram arrives to tell the women that Mr. March is hospitalized in Washington DC. They are so penniless that Jo has to sell her hair to have money for Marmee's trip for Washington. While out of the house, the girls abandon housework, which they hate. Meantime, Beth visits the Hummel family and in that visit, she is infected with the baby's scarlet fever, just like Alcott's real-life sister Lizzie caught the disease. To avoid getting infected, Amy, the youngest, escapes to the house of their aunt. Beth soon recovers. Meanwhile, Laurie's tutor, Mr. Brooke, falls in love with Meg. Meg, the eldest, has a sense of responsibility towards her younger sisters and the most domestically inclined. She has some liking for luxury and leisure but is, on the whole, kind and loving. Right before the end of the first part of the novel, Mr. Brooke and Meg become engaged, to the shock and displeasure of Jo.

In the second part, Meg and Mr. Brooke have moved into a new home and Mr. March is also back from the War. Jo gets published for the first time, but she has to trim her manuscript first as the condition set by her publishers. Meg gives birth to twins, Demi and Daisy, and gets immersed in household duties even more than before. And their Aunt Carroll goes to Paris with Amy instead of Jo, because the aunt prefers Amy's ladylike manners and looks to Jo's rugged tomboyish appearance and ways.

	Prewritten #16
Title:	16 Little Women.
Category:	Book Reports - Book Reviews
Filename:	16 Little Women Alcott.doc
Pages:	12
Bibliographies:	3
Format:
Price:	US$107.40

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